Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has warned marketers within
its Enugu Zone to comply with N145 pump price of Premium Motor Spirit
(PMS) or have their products dispensed to customers free.
Mr Unyime
Akpan of Health, Safety and Environment Department, DPR Enugu Office,
gave the warning in Awka when he led an enforcement team to Anambra on
Tuesday.
Akpan said the team sealed one filing station
for allegedly refusing to revert and enforced the pump price sale of the
product in nine other stations on Atani road in Ogbaru and some parts
of Idemili North Local Government Areas.
He expressed regret that
some marketers had remained defiant, in spite of DPR’s efforts to ensure
compliance, noting that the DPR might apply more stringent punishment
by dispensing products of defaulting marketers to customers for free.
“Petrol
price is controlled; stations are not supposed to sell above N145 per
liter and if the cost of getting products suggests they cannot sell at
that price, then they should leave out.
“Marketers are the people
encouraging the hike; if they are not gaining from it, then they leave
out until the system returns to normal.
“We may have to begin to
dispense their products free because DPR also has the powers; if this
price compliance sales proves ineffective, we may be left with no option
than to give out their petrol, so that they can understand how serious
we are,” he said.
In a reaction, the Independent Petroleum Marketers
Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) absolved its members of any complicity in
the hike of petrol price and blamed it on scarcity.
Chief Ikechukwu
Nwankwo, Chairman of IPMAN, Enugu Depot, in charge of Anambra, Ebonyi
and Enugu states, urged DPR to stop the clampdown the members as sealing
outlets and auctioning the products would not solve the problem.
Nwankwo decried the petrol supply situation in the country and called for a more sustainable measure to normalise it.
He
said DPR’s action on IPMAN members, especially those under his zone,
amounted to being punished for a problem they did not cause and could
not solve.
Nwankwo said that solution to the problem was massive and sufficient supply of petrol into the system by the NNPC.
The
IPMAN chairman said marketers were making efforts to make the product
available to customers as complete scarcity would amount to shutting the
economy and holding the masses hostage.
“I have spoken with my
members here in Anambra, the situation of fuel supply is bad and it is
our wish that we begin to get products like the way it used to be
before.
“IPMAN is not happy with the way the DPR is harassing us,
closing our stations and auctioning our products. It is like they want
to push us out of business because we cannot continue to suffer this
loss.
“NNPC is not allocating products to us, DPR should go and
monitor the marketers that get allocation from NNPC; how can we buy
product at N190 or N195 and DPR sells them off at N145.
“We make
extra effort to get product at tank depot so that economic activities
can go on and we should not be punished for that; we may have to close
our stations if they continue to pursue us,” he said.
NAN reportes that pump price of petrol has dropped from between N240 and N250 to N200 per liter.